The Deeds of Briyann
by Kathryn Angelle
Summary: A story told in a rather old fashioned way, for mythology readers - Taken from stories told by a character in my story Belonging to Someone.
1. The First Tale

This story is a fairy tale of sorts, told in an old fashioned way, if you've ever read, say, St. George the Dragon Slayer, or King Arthur, or any other aged tales. It was taken from the third chapter of my Lord of the Rings story Belonging to Someone; my character Rhian, a young woman who finds herself in Middle Earth, begins telling a story, made up on the spot of course. I thought it might be enjoyed by a wider audience (aforementioned LOTR fic has as of this writing a grand total of two reviews from the same person); the story is incomplete, because it is supposed to feature a troll and a prince as well as a princess and a dragon, AND they're supposed to be at Camelot, with the princess in the tower guarded by the troll and the prince at the gate (read third chapter of Belonging to Someone for an explaination) and I know how it will all come about, I just need to take the time to write it down, and I probably won't until it's needed in my other story, because I'm a lazy bum (surprise surprise). But enough of me rambling. I've probably scared any readers off by now, but...  
  
An Ancient Tale  
by Kathryn Angelle  
  
Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a beautiful princess named Briyann, who was the daughter of a great king, his only child and a warrior in her own right. She traveled far and wide, seeking adventure, until one day she came to a distant land that was plagued by a dark and terrible dragon called Raygen who breathed his fiery breath on the fields and withered the crops, unless the king, a sickly aged man, sent out a maiden from the city walls for him to devour. When Briyann rode into that place, she found much weeping, for the king's daughter, a fine lady and true, had made up her mind to go to the dragon and would not be detered. When Briyann had heard all this, she said to the king's daughter 'Let me go to be the dragon's maiden, for my blade is strong, and with the help of heaven perhaps I may slay this foul creature.' The king's daughter agreed, 'But,' she said, 'if you do not suceed and the dragon returns I shall be the one to go and none shall stop me.' To this they agreed, and the next day the king's daughter took Briyann and clothed her in white, girdled about her waist with a silken cord of blood red, and Briyann took her sword in one hand, and a shield bearing the device of a silver falcon in the other, and went out of the city gates alone with none beside or behind her, and before her the dragon. And when she reached the dragon's lair, deep in the mountains, she called for it to do battle with her, or be named a coward. The dragon Raygen came forth from his cave, fire shedding from his nostirels, to see who would so defy him. When he saw that it was a maid who spoke so bravely, he laughed, and flame spread from his jaws, but inwardly he quaked, for he could see that her heart was strong and brave. He set upon her fiercly, with wing and fang and claw, and the blood of both stained the ground until, with what strength was left her, she cleaved the creature's head from its shoulders, and it fell dead at her feet. Briyann sank down in a faint from weariness, and the next day when she did not return, the king's daughter, thinking her dead, went out of the gates alone as Briyann had done. When she reached the dragon's lair she called out, but there was none to answer her, for the dragon was dead and Briyann dead to the world, though her heart beat yet in her breast. Finally, after some time past, the king's daughter went down into the cave, and found the beast beheaded and Briyann lying still, and mourned her; but then, wait! For Briyann's shield where it lay by her cheek was misted with her breath, and when the king's daughter saw this she rejoiced, and bent to tend her wounds. And soon she was revived and her eyes opened, and she bid the king's daughter to take the red girdle from about her waist and bind the dragon's head with it, that it may be brought back to the city for proof, and that her horse be brought, for she would return home to the land of her birth. This was done, and with much rejoicing was Bryianne given a hero's leave of that country.  
  
This story is loosely based on a story of St. George, which is where the red girdle, or kirtle in some versions, comes from, but instead featuring a female knight, who is loosely based on Bradamante (if anyone knows where I can find more information on Bradamante, pleeease email me! My research yields little). The Silver Falcon crest is important, if you plan to read the story this comes from, and the story I plan to follow it (if, in several years time, you contact me and say 'did you ever write such and such', expect me to deny ever knowing you, unless of course I actually did it). Oh yes, and please review! I live for reviews, give me a review and I will love you forever! 


	2. The Second Tale

I have told already the tale of Princess Briyann and the dragon Raygen, the serpent who was slain by her hand. But I have told only half; now I shall tell you the rest, of the dragon Shayam and the troll king Dreego. Shayam was close kin to Raygen, and when she heard of his death by Briyann's hand she vowed vengeance; she flew northward, to the land of Briyann's father, King Arthur and besieged the castle Camelot, sitting upon the great gates so that the king and all his knights were trapped hopelessly within. When Briyann returned and heard of this, that her father was prisoner in his own hall, she charged Shayam with lance and spear, raising her shield against the dragon's fire. Shayam for her part fell on Briyann with tooth and claw, until the maiden's blade tore the flesh of the dragon's wing and she retreated. At this King Arthur unbarred his gates and gathered his daughter in his arms, vowing her the most valiant of all his sword-sworn, but lo! even as Shayam tended her hurt she sent for her ally the Troll King Dreego to come to her aid, for he owed her servitude. He was covered with thick green skin, not easily pierced by blade or bow, and carried in his hand a huge ax, but Briyann, when her eyes fell on him, did not flinch but sent her father and all his company from Camelot, bidding them wait on her time. Such was the king's faith in her that he did what was asked of him, taking all the court into the hills, leaving Briyann alone before the dragon Shayam's wrath and power. Knowing she, wounded still, was no match for the Troll King's strength, Briyann retreated within the castle and barricaded herself within the tall tower, with her bow and sword beside her. Whenever he approached she fired on him from the windows arrows dipped in flame, so that he could not come near. And so for many days they remained thus, until Shayam, healed of her hurts, returned from her place of solitude and prepared to force Briyann from her place in the tower. But before the deed could be carried out, from behind the dragon came a shout of challenge. For the Prince Chiarlon had heard from afar tales of a lady as valiant as she was fair, and as true of heart. So entranced was he by these tales that he came many miles across the mountians seeking her, and, having heard from the knights of her father how she held the castle alone, had sworn himself to come to her aid. So now he waited answer to his challenge, and Shayam gave it. In the same manner as Raygen had set upon Briyann, in the selfsame manner of all dragon kindred, she set upon Prince Chiarlon with wing and fang and claw, while he hewed her flesh with the blade of his fathers until the very stones were stained with red, and when night fell both retreated back under the sky shadows. Dreego the Troll King was kept from interfering by Briyann's keen aim, while she also was kept back by his broad ax. And so when the sun rose golden the next day Prince Chiarlon and Shayam met again, and again wing and fang and claw met with ancient steel guided by strong arm and true heart, and when the sun sank that night it was Shayam who retreated first into darkness. While the shadows reigned in the time before dawn, Prince Chiarlon slipped along the palace walls, silently as the stars in their motions above, until he came to the place where Dreego slept on guard. He took from the Troll King's hand his ax, and this he threw into the moat. In the tower above Briyann heard him, and coming to the window saw the Dreego heard him too, for he was waking. She called to Chiarlon in warning, and let loose her bow, an arrow burying itself in Dreego's thick skinned shoulder, scorching the green flesh. Chiarlon, turning just as the sun rose, caught sight of Bryiann in the new light, and saluted her, for never had he seen a lady so fair or so bold, and she responded in kind, before he returned to the gates, to face Shayam for the third and final time. Now new love for his lady guided his hand, and he struck with even greater force than before, so that the dragoness fell back before him, until with a mighty blow he drove the great blade to the hilts in her chest, and she lay still on the stony ground. As they fought Briyann's arrows had kept the vengful Troll King at bay, but now her quiver was empty, and Dreego armed with a thick staff set out to wreck havoc upon her champion. Briyann, seeing this, took up her sword and met Dreego within the gates, while Chiarlon yet remained without, and smote him once, twice across the shoulders before he returned the blows, and this weakly. Again she struck, thrice, until the hideous head came free and rolled upon the cobblestones, and the creature slumped to the ground. And then did she go out of her father's liberated gates to meet with her prince upon the field, and tend his hurt, and send for the king's return. 


	3. The First Part of the Third Tale

Author's Note: This comes from an incomplete and not yet posted chapter of Belonging to Someone, so you could consider it a preview. I've finally returned to the adventures of Briyann, which are really fun to write (plus I finally read all of Bulfinch's Mythology: The Legends of Charlemenge, which, among other things, tells the story of Bradamant, on whom Briyann is based).   
  
It had been many days since the lady knight Briyann and her prince, the brave Chiarlon, had set forth from her father's castle. They had ridden, side by side, for fourteen days and nights, into the wildness beyond her father's country. Briyann rode with her flaming hair unbound, and Chiarlon, when he looked upon her, found his heart so full he dared not speak. And so it was in silence that they rode, and the hooves of their horses made no sound on the soft ground, and it was thus that they happened to hear the cry of a damsel in much distress.  
The cry they had heard came from far away and above, where Charlon could see- for the prince had the eyes of a hawk- a ledge or cave cut deep into the stone face of the cliff, with no steps to ascend, nor any kind of ladder. And as he stood in his stirrups and looked to the rocks all around, he saw a dreadful creature, a creature with the back legs of a lion, and the beak and talons of an eagle, and the wings of a dragon. And in its claws the creature clutched a fair maiden, white of skin and golden of hair, who wore a crown. And as he described to his lady all that he saw, she bethought her of a tale she had once been told, some time ago in the hall of the king whose daughter she had saved. The tale had been told by an old woman, a teller of tales and master of her trade. She had spoken of such a creature, and had given it the name of 'Gryphon. So 'tis called,' Briyann said, 'and it is as fell a beast as ever was. Let us seek to rescue this dame,' and so it was that Briyann rode forward to challenge the beast, and Chiarlon came after her, for his horse was of not the same stock, and less swift.   
When the gryphon saw Briyann, and the white smoke that rose behind her steed like a plume, he released his captive, leaving the maiden trapped on the outcrop of stone. He spread his great wings- so great that they blotted the sky from Briyann's sight- and plunged down upon her. Her spear he grasped in his black talons, wrenching it from her grasp, and her shield he buffeted with his dark wings, such that it was knocked from her hand and the blazon of the silver falcon was marred by dust and stone. Though she took her sword from its sheath, its bright edge fell useless against the creature's armored feathers- for if a gryphon is to be slain, it must be struck on the soft underbelly of its lion parts, or else be driven through the eye to the brain. So Briyann's blade was splintered apart from its hilt, and Briyann herself was caught up in the gryphon's talons, though she struggled mightily, and was carried in his hateful grasp far above the earth and to a place high in the mountains to the north- Such a place as Chiarlon had spied, where no steps or ladder made way for the escape of human feet, and only winged creatures could come or go as they wished. Briyann, though valiant, had neither feather nor pinion, and her arms, though skilled, had not the way of catching her up in the air and supporting her in flight. So the brave daughter of King Arthur was trapped, well and good, with no means of attaining freedom.  
Did I not say that the steed of Chiarlon was not of the same sort as that of his lady? For there was no steed in the world to equal that of the lady Briyann's Talien, who was a foal of the Fire mare, and a creature of the wind. But great was Prince Chiarlon's grief and pain, when he reached the place where his lady's spear lay splintered on the ground, and her brave shield lay dented in the dust. Talien, at the loss of his mistress, ran free upon the wilds, mad with grief of his own, and Chiarlon did not deign to try and capture him. But he knelt in the dirt and took up the blade from his lady's sword, where it lay naked of sheath and hilts, and having no place else, he put it among his arrows in the quiver on his back. Her shield he also reclaimed, and tied to his horse that it might not be lost, and as he bound it he wept, so that his tears bathed away the dust from his lady's symbol, and caused the silver falcon to gleam bravely again.   
And when he had done all these things, through his grief he heard the call of the maiden whose cries had first brought them to this spot, and who was entrapped still upon the gryphon ledge. Seeing her, Chiarlon though to seek how she might be freed from her aerial prison, but found no means of reaching her until he remember that in his saddlebags there was a tiny ball of purest spun glass, which glowed a pale gold under the starlight, and had, so the woman who had given it to him said, magical properties to aid the truehearted. She had spoken curiously when she placed the strange thing in his hands- 'Be true,' she had said, 'to the oth4er half of your whole, for if ever you lose the part of you that is not yourself, then you shall lose all of what you are.' He did not know of what she spoke, but he had cause to respect her words- although that is another story- and had sworn to do as she said.   
Now in his hand the ball glowed silver in the sunlight, and hummed against his palm, ever so faintly. He knew not what good it might do, and so he simply spoke quietly to the ball, murmuring all his tale of woe, and the sorry plight of the maiden far above. As he finished speaking, the magical light left his palm, swirling up into the sky above until it was no more than a speck, and as he watched it, found that of all things the light melted into a twining strand, on end of which fastened itself to the stone above the captive's prison, and the other end fell lightly into his hands. In this way the fair lady was made to descend until she reached the blessed ground, and the light resolved itself once again into a ball of glass, and settled itself in the prince's hand. 


End file.
